Forget home court advantage, Virginia Academy is just happy to have a home court.
After years of playing on the road, years of having to pay other schools to utilize their courts for “home” games, the Patriots’ boys and girls basketball programs now have a beautiful new basketball facility to call their own. There’s a lot of excitement on campus, and the teams haven’t even played a game there yet.
“Everybody’s excited for it,” said junior boys guard Rondel (RJ) Jones. “Not even just the entire basketball teams, but the church, all the students…everybody is going to come and watch every single game. The teachers, everybody talks about it. It’s all we talk about.”
That’s understandable, as the new 60,000 square-foot facility is quite impressive. It isn’t just a basketball court, either. It’s locker rooms, classrooms, administration offices, a library, and even an art studio.
“The idea was a college student union,” said Virginia Academy Athletic Operations Coordinator Adam Staats. “We want to give our kids a great opportunity to enjoy their education in a great place. The church is all-in on our mission of private education…so the big thing is to keep mission-focused, mission-oriented, but to give our kids a different experience.”
It will be a different experience for Staats to not have to find places for his basketball teams to play their “home games.” In recent years, Virginia Academy has paid for its teams to play at nearby King Abdullah Academy, with an occasional game at public high schools like Dominion and Herndon. The school’s middle school teams have played at Dulles Sports Plex–for a fee.
Virginia Academy has been around for 26 years. The Patriots have had some good teams, including a girls program that has won four straight VISAA state championships, the last two after moving up to the Division II level. That team has enjoyed success despite having been on the road for most of that period, playing only 11 “home” games–none on campus.
“We’re not used to actually having a home,” said Patriots girls coach Walt Hamilton. “We’re thankful for King Abdullah for extending their gym to us over the last couple years, but it is a really blessing for us to have a home, one of the best facilities, I think, on the east coast.”
We can’t imagine he’s wrong. The lighting is top-notch and there’s an amazing video board at half court with four screens–two facing each side of the gym. When the programs utilize a dividing curtain at mid-court, they can play two games simultaneously with the video boards tracking the score, game clock, and more on each side. The locker rooms are impressive, and the athletes’ lockers are the type college basketball players might have.
“The school has been looking forward it for a long time,” said Staats of the finished project, which started in the Spring of 2022. “Our kids have learned to do a lot with a little, and now they’re getting rewarded.”
It wasn’t just that the Patriot basketball programs had to play their games away from campus in prior years, they often had to practice off campus as well. The school did and still does have a bubble-like facility on campus, not attached to the main building, where teams could practice. However, the school has to use portable heaters to even keep that crude facility tolerably warm in the winter. The courts in the bubble are sometimes unplayable for that reason, also due to excessive condensation on the floor.
Even when that space was playable, it wasn’t nearly enough for a growing school, now up to over 900 students, with high school and middle school teams.
“Practice is great now,” boys coach Tau Hamilton told us. “It’s easier to walk downstairs after school right into our gym than getting into cars or getting into a van and driving up the road to a gym that we’re renting.”
There would be optimism with both the boys and girls team this season even if the new gym wasn’t ready. Now, the optimism level is off the charts.
The girls team opened its season with a 52-50 victory over St. Anne’s Belfield on the road on Friday. Belfield is a Virginia Independent Schools Division I power, and next season Virginia Academy will move to that top level VISAA postseason competition, thanks to its growing enrollment. The VAA ladies are led by Leah Keyes, a physical senior guard and George Mason signee. There’s several other returnees, plus new talented additions like Sofia Caraus (Centreville), Irieanna Smoot (Osbourn), and Hazel Grepps (Paul VI).
The girls, who figure to open the season ranked high in our novahoops.com rankings, will play the school’s first regular season game on their court this Tuesday, as they host Riverdale Baptist (MD).
It’s no surprise the girls figure to amplify their success with their new home, but the boys might be a factor in our rankings this season as well. Last year the team only won a handful of games, but this year the team’s chemistry seems vastly improved. Of course, the brutal schedule didn’t help last year.
“[Last season] It was tough because travelling every single game, an hour-plus to a lot of games, that really took a toll on our bodies,” said Jones. “The games will be easier for us staying at home and not travelling as far.”
Jones is a talented next-level off-guard prospect who seems ready to blow up even more this season. Other players return, like 6’8″ big guys Deng Wutchok and Mike Manser, and swingman Matthew McLaurin, who played hurt last year. Team-oriented talent like guards Isiah Blue (Hayfield) and Mike Smith (Woodbridge) join the fray, as does forward Chris Rochester (South Lakes).
The boys will play four road games before opening their much-anticipated home slate December 2nd versus Bishop Ireton.
That night, the Patriots’ new house will be rocking.
“For practice and just for the pure psychology of the athletes, to understand that they have their own gym to protect–it’s a different feeling from protecting a rented space,” said Coach Tau.
“Now we have a real house to defend, not just a hotel room or something that we’re renting.”
–Chris Jollay